Armenia Invites Turkish President To 'Genocide' Anniversary

Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian has invited his Turkish counterpart to attend a ceremony in Yerevan marking what Armenians refer to as the "genocide" of Armenians by Turkish Ottoman forces during World War One.

The invitation Sarkisian extended on May 27 is for a ceremony on April 24, 2015 that will mark the 100th anniversary of the killings.

Turkey conducts a presidential election in August after incumbent Abdullah Gul's term expires.

Current Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has indicated he would run for president and Erdogan released a statement ahead of this year's commemoration of the genocide in Armenia, calling the 1915 massacres and mass deportations "our shared pain."

Turkey continues to say that the violence of 1915 was inflicted on Armenians and Turks and rejects calling those events genocide.